450 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Nation. Among farmers and dairj^men we seldom find men of "in- 

 finite cleverness who are not alwa^ys clever," nor those possessing 

 "an inexhaustible fund of self approbation." Kather do we find men 

 of "genuine simplicity of heart which is a healing and cementing 

 principle." In the new agriculture the farmer is beginning to take 

 his ]).'ace among the forces which determine the wealth or "illth" of 

 a nation. However, "time is needed for the growth of confidence in 

 the new order of things." The farmer has made and will make many 

 mistakes, but "mankind is helped in its j>rogress almost as much 

 by the study of imperfection as by the contemplation of perfection." 

 As he marches to the front in this 20th century he is bound to make 

 enemies. The man who has hoodwinked him or, lo, these manv 

 years! and waxed fat at his (the farmer's) expense will not care to 

 see him pull the wool from his (this farmer's) eyes. Of a great 

 American it was said: "we love and respect him, not only for him- 

 self, for his character, for his integrity, judgment and iron will, but 

 we love him most of all for the enemies he has made." When the 

 farmer develops similar (jualities, then the public will love and re- 

 spect him, and at the same time, his enemies will have a healthy re- 

 gard for his opinion on public questions. Too long the farmer has 

 been looked upon as a "man. of limited mentality and easily gullible." 

 An American writer commenting recently on the value of American 

 Farm Products which amounted to nearly eight billions of dollars 

 in 1908, pointed out that this is but an average return per farmer 

 of about fSGS. He added this significant comment: "Collectively 

 the American farmer is a mighty factor in world finance; singly he 

 is overworked and ill-paid, grossly discriminated against in legisla- 

 tion and not nearly so much in need of commissions on social uplift 

 as of simple justice." In proof of the foregoing we may be allowed 

 to quote a writer in an American Agricultural Journal, who said 

 recently that in Wayne county, N. Y., not one farm in 15 or 20 is 

 occupied by descendants of owners of fifty years ago. These farms 

 are largely given over to immigrants. These are things which ought 

 to cause all thinking men to stop and consider. Whither are we 

 drifting on this outward tide aw^ay from the farm? Fortunately, 

 the tide is turning towards the farm and we need to profit by the 

 mistakes of the past. The men who have been guiding the destiny 

 of the North American Continent have made some serious blunders 

 with reference to agriculture. These great men have had some seri- 

 ous defects which must be remedied by the statesmen of the future. 

 It is not enough, as Disraeli said, that "The defects of great men 

 are the consolation of dunces." 



The greatest drawback in American agriculture is the fact that 

 farmers are not sufficiently rewarded for capital invested in, and 

 labor spent upon, their farms. This is so because the economic 

 conditions are fixed against the farmer. While I would not have 

 the obtaining of money the highest ideal of an American farmer, it 

 is a necessary factor in the world's progress, though in saying this 

 we may lay ourselves open to the imputation that "the life of one 

 sex is devoted to dollar-hunting and of the other to breeding dollar 

 hunters." 



Practical Phases of the Question. 



We have dwelt at length on the introduction to my subject be- 

 cause the man is the most impoi-taut factor in the problem of milk 

 production. In order to succeed in economic milk production a man 



